Length of services, commuting, service language, friends or foes of yours that attend it, pretty representatives of the opposite sex, quality of sermons, the way the choir sing / priest reads, other elements (ie whether there is a coffee hour afterwards), number of people attending, size of the parish - these are mine.

Not always. I pass by one 1.5 miles away from my house to attend one 14 miles away. I guess I could attend the closest one if nothing was important to me. MK gave a bunch of reasons, and many of them are good ones.

Logged

I would be happy to agree with you, but then both of us would be wrong.

Not always. I pass by one 1.5 miles away from my house to attend one 14 miles away. I guess I could attend the closest one if nothing was important to me. MK gave a bunch of reasons, and many of them are good ones.

While I understand that point of view it leads into catastrophic situation which can be seen in all of the Western European and American countries.

You have your cause and effect reversed. Bypassing a close parish for a far parish does not lead to the situation that we have. The situation that we have leads to the sometimes necessary act of bypassing one parish for one further away. If both parishes followed the same calendar, venerated the same Saints, were under the same Bishop and the like, it would not be necessary (nor would it probably be allowed) to drive passed the one to get to the other.

Not always. I pass by one 1.5 miles away from my house to attend one 14 miles away. I guess I could attend the closest one if nothing was important to me. MK gave a bunch of reasons, and many of them are good ones.

While I understand that point of view it leads into catastrophic situation which can be seen in all of the Western European and American countries.

Logged

I would be happy to agree with you, but then both of us would be wrong.

You have your cause and effect reversed. Bypassing a close parish for a far parish does not lead to the situation that we have. The situation that we have leads to the sometimes necessary act of bypassing one parish for one further away. If both parishes followed the same calendar, venerated the same Saints, were under the same Bishop and the like, it would not be necessary (nor would it probably be allowed) to drive passed the one to get to the other.

You mean people would be forced to attend one parish or not attend at all?

Logged

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor 2:6)

You have your cause and effect reversed. Bypassing a close parish for a far parish does not lead to the situation that we have. The situation that we have leads to the sometimes necessary act of bypassing one parish for one further away. If both parishes followed the same calendar, venerated the same Saints, were under the same Bishop and the like, it would not be necessary (nor would it probably be allowed) to drive passed the one to get to the other.

No, it's you who has cause and effect reversed! Picking and choosing is the thing that caused the change of calendar and other problems in the first place and is causing bybassing close parishes today. While I agree with you on the calendar etc issues simply attending outwardly more correct parish doesn't make the issue go away. The bybassed parish still uses the wrong calendar so a problem within the Church remains.

You have your cause and effect reversed. Bypassing a close parish for a far parish does not lead to the situation that we have. The situation that we have leads to the sometimes necessary act of bypassing one parish for one further away. If both parishes followed the same calendar, venerated the same Saints, were under the same Bishop and the like, it would not be necessary (nor would it probably be allowed) to drive passed the one to get to the other.

You mean people would be forced to attend one parish or not attend at all?

Encouraged would be a better word.

Logged

I would be happy to agree with you, but then both of us would be wrong.

You have your cause and effect reversed. Bypassing a close parish for a far parish does not lead to the situation that we have. The situation that we have leads to the sometimes necessary act of bypassing one parish for one further away. If both parishes followed the same calendar, venerated the same Saints, were under the same Bishop and the like, it would not be necessary (nor would it probably be allowed) to drive passed the one to get to the other.

No, it's you who has cause and effect reversed! Picking and choosing is the thing that caused the change of calendar and other problems in the first place and is causing bybassing close parishes today. While I agree with you on the calendar etc issues simply attending outwardly more correct parish doesn't make the issue go away. The bybassed parish still uses the wrong calendar so a problem within the Church remains.

Logged

I would be happy to agree with you, but then both of us would be wrong.

I did yesterday. He said there are no perfect parishes, and you should go to the one that best fits your needs.

I'm in the lucky situation to have five Orthodox parishes pretty close to my house. One is Greek. One is ROCOR. One is UOC-USA. One is Moscow Patriarch. One is OCA.

I bypass the Greek one (actually the closest to my house) for one reason: the music. Byzantine chant does nothing for me. If this was the only church in town, I'd go to it, but it's not, so I don't have to.

The ROCOR church is very ethnic: services in Slavonic (which I don't mind) and sermon in Russian. It's a very Russian parish. THE UOC-USA parish is similarly very ethnic, only Ukrainian. Both cater to their respective immigrant communities.

The MP church is just a bit further away than the OCA one. They do things about half Slavonic/half English. There's a good mix of immigrants and American-born parishoners (both cradles and converts). I really like the priest and the deacon.

I settled on the OCA parish because it's all in English (with a smattering of Slavonic here and there), it's literally five minutes past the Greek church, the people are nice and welcoming, and, of course, the music. They do a mix of obikhoid and prostopinije tones, the latter of which I have a love affair with, so to speak.

As your priest noted, if you have the luxury of multiple parishes, find the one that suits your needs best. If you don't have the luxury, or you find that all things are generally equal, go to the closest one.

Logged

"Hearing a nun's confession is like being stoned to death with popcorn." --Abp. Fulton Sheen

1. Music (Byzantine)2. Language of services (About 50/50 Greek and English; wouldn't want to lose either) 3. Priest (Pious and good homilist)4. Kids (Tons of them, with solid weekday programs)5. Strong communal sense of direction and mission (Yes, please)6. People (The kind you want to hang out with at your own or their home)

Presently, we've got all six.

Logged

But for I am a man not textueel I wol noght telle of textes neuer a deel. (Chaucer, The Manciple's Tale, 1.131)